MIAMI-In a time of financial uncertainty with no bottom to the real estate downturn in sight, locally based Colliers Abood Wood-Fay is in expansion mode. The commercial real estate firm has added a distressed property services group, brought on an additional investment sales teams, will be expanding its property management team and is getting ready to launch an advisory services group.

Michael Fay, president of Colliers Abood Wood-Fay, says there is no better time to expand. Fay will lead the 10-person distressed property services group, an area where he grew as a broker early in his career, he tells GlobeSt.com. "I was once the owner of a bank and I know what the regulators are looking for," Fay says. "We know how to navigate through the regulatory issues to maximize assets."

The leasing, management and financial specialties of all three partners—Fay, Donna Abood and Thomas D. Wood Jr.—make the team more excited about this market than it has been in the last five years, says Fay. Services offered by the newly formed distressed group include capital markets financing, workout exchanges, joint-venture structures, property repositioning, finance restructuring, and investment analysis and strategy.

"It is our full intent to capitalize on the distressed market opportunities for both our seller and buyer clients," says Kevin G. Kowalski, senior vice president of the Kowalski Team, a four-person group that recently joined Colliers. The team includes commercial associates Giles H. A. Barker, Jeff Resnick, and Julie A. Sanchez, all of whom were previously with Kowalski at Investment Real Estate Associates. "Our main reason for leaving IREA was twofold: the global platform that Colliers offers, and the quality of the existing investment sales platform locally," Kowalski tells GlobeSt.com.

The office will also soon launch an advisory service group, to be led by executive vice president Stephen Nostrand, reveals Fay. The team will offer best-use financial analysis to owners who are not in distress but want to maintain their properties through this turbulent time, he says. In addition to the expanded services, Colliers is also in the process of adding brokers to existing teams, reveals Fay, including its property management group.

"Sellers and owners are finally realizing it's not pretty out there, and if you are going to sell a property you're going to have to be very realistic in your pricing," says Fay. The lack of capital and borrowing in this market are making both private owners and REITs sell off assets to take advantage of other opportunities, he adds. "This is where we thrive," says Fay.